Albertans pay among the highest electricity rates in North America, shows a new report by the Fraser Institute.

Ranking 119 cities across Canada and the United States, the Fraser Institute puts Edmonton and Calgary in the bottom third of the pack for electricity used by residential, small commercial and small industrial customers.

For small industrial customers with a 1,000 kilowatt power demand and a monthly consumption of 400,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), Edmonton ranks as the second most expensive city for electricity while Calgary ranks fifth.

"Every Albertan who opens a power bill has reason to be sorry that this government was re-elected," said Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith in Question Period. "Somehow, in a province where we basically give our coal away to generators and where natural gas prices are close to historic lows, we have some of the highest power prices in North America."

But Energy Minister Diana McQueen said the report doesn't factor in each city's debt on their transmission system and isn't comprehensive.

"We do not have subsidies in our electricity system here and when you factor out the debt and the cheap hydro-electricity that some of the other provinces have and take advantage of, our prices are very competitive in this province," said McQueen.

As Advertised in the Edmonton SUN

Edmonton ranks second most expensive city for electricity: report

Albertans pay among the highest electricity rates in North America, shows a new report by the Fraser Institute.
Ranking 119 cities across Canada and the United States, the Fraser Institute puts Edmonton and Calgary in the bottom third of the pack for electricity used by residential, small commercial and small industrial customers.
For small industrial customers with a 1,000 kilowatt power demand and a monthly consumption of 400,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), Edmonton ranks as the second most expensive city for electricity while Calgary ranks fifth.